Disclaimer: RWBY is an animated series created by Rooster Teeth. The cover image for this story is a screenshot from the Volume 8 opening.

Age 12; 2 Weeks after Completing 7th Grade

Today is the entrance exam for Polaris Combat School. I've just finished 7th Grade, which is my last year of "normal" education. Huntsmen-in-training take normal classes in addition to Huntsman-centric ones, but they still get less of a standard education than a normal student. I'm not worried about my education suffering, though.

I learned a lot in my past life, after all.

Anyway, I have the whole summer to train my Aura and my combat skills. In between training, I've been doing a lot of reading. I found a few interesting Great War-era books on Faunus biology that I enjoyed reading until I found out that the authors had apparently gotten some of their information from experimenting on prisoners of war.

I decided to read programming books instead of more biology ones.

Amber, who finally turned 8, will start her training this summer. As her favorite sibling, I'm going to be involved in her training whether I like it or not. Thankfully, I don't mind helping out.

On a sadder note, Aspen and Amandine's families were planning on moving to Menagerie. A recent White Fang raid on an SDC facility had created a wave of anti-Faunus sentiment. I was sad to see them go, but they were honestly closer to Lavender than me.

Menagerie has (low-quality) CCT access, so at least we'll be able to call them.

Age 12; 1 Week before Jaune's 13th Birthday

Today was a sparring day. Sparring generally consists of me failing to land significant blows on my father and Jade while they smack me across the yard. Repeatedly.

This session was no different. I was dueling my father at the moment, and he was kicking my ass.

I brought my shield up to block Joyeuse, his sword, and my arm shuddered from the force of the blow. Unfortunately, my midsection was now open, which he capitalized on by landing a brutal kick on me that knocked me across the yard.

I landed flat on my back but hopped to my feet just in time to see him mechashift his sword into an assault rifle. I hurriedly crouched and brought my shield up to block the hail of bullets heading my way, but I was pinned down. When I heard the click of his magazine being empty, I peered over the top of my shield to see him charging up his semblance, Charge, to… well, to charge at me.

My family isn't exactly good at coming up with imaginative Semblance names.

There was no way I'd be able to block or dodge a Charge-propelled strike from him. I needed a way to interrupt his attack, but I didn't have a ranged weapon. I needed-

I blinked, felt a dip in my aura levels, and when I opened my eyes I was standing right in front of my father.

Before I could capitalize on his surprise or even think about the fact that I somehow just teleported, I felt the unfortunately familiar sensation of my soul boiling. Again.

I collapsed in agony, my entire being suffused with burning pain. Again.

When I finally came to, I ignored my panicking family to focus on more important things like superpowers. I could feel a new part of my Aura (which thankfully was no longer searing me) that wasn't there before. I also somehow knew that I needed to blink to use it.

So, naturally, I blinked, and then I was several feet in the air and now falling. Thankfully, I wasn't in agony anymore, and my father caught me before I hit the ground.

I had finally unlocked my Semblance, and it let me teleport.

Fuck. Yes.

My father was understandably worried about me passing out from sheer agony, so I was banned from experimenting with my Semblance for the rest of the day. Jade, overprotective as always, agreed with him.

The next day, I cancelled all of my plans to practice with my Semblance. After several hours of experimentation, I managed to fill up several pages in the notebook I'd been keeping on Aura.

My Semblance allowed me to perform short-range, line of sight-based teleportation by focusing on a location I can see and blinking. It had a base Aura cost that increased the further I travelled. I had a lot of Aura, but going long distances used up my Aura pretty quickly.

It also lets me choose my positioning where I arrive, so I can fulfill every anime fan's dream of facing someone and then teleporting behind them. I could even teleport myself upside down, but I'm not exactly sure why that would be useful. I can't change my bodily position, unfortunately, so I can't teleport myself into a blocking stance, for example.

I can't bring people or any living things with me, but I bring everything that I'm wearing and carrying. I have to be physically carrying it, though, so I can't drop boulders on top of people.

I don't actually know how the teleportation works, though. Am I making a portal? Am I disassembling myself and reforming elsewhere? Am I bending space between myself and my destination? Am I moving through another dimension? I know I'm not physically moving there, because I can teleport to the other side of a window without breaking it.

I can't teleport inside objects, which is both good and bad. It's good because I can't telefrag myself by fusing into a wall and instantly killing myself in a horrifically gruesome manner. It's bad because I can't kill other things by teleporting a sword into them.

I decided to continue the family tradition of obvious names by calling it "Blink". I think there might have been a superhero with the same name, but I don't know much about Earth comics. I do remember Nightcrawler being a teleporter, but people would probably be confused if I called my Semblance that.

As a side note, I may have annoyed my family by teleporting everywhere instead of walking. But come on! This is amazing!

Ahem. Anyway, I'm going to start implementing Blinking into my combat style. Being about to attack enemies from any angle is a huge force multiplier. I still can't beat Jade, much less Dad, but I'm finally making them work for it.

I'm one step closer to being a Huntsman.

Age 13; 1 Week before Jaune Starts Combat School

Jade is leaving home tomorrow. Her performance at Polaris was more than good enough to earn her a spot at Beacon Academy, assuming she passes initiation. We had a going-away party for her, and I had to use my Aura to survive the bone-breaking hug she pulled me into. I was finally taller than her, but she still had me beat in the strength department.

I might have cried a bit, but I'll never admit it.

Age 13; 1st Day of Combat School

Today's the day I take my next step on the path to becoming a Huntsman. I've been preparing for Polaris for five years now, and all my hard work will finally pay off. Hopefully my classmates here will be more mature than the ones at my old school.

Age 13; End of Week 1 of Combat School

So it turns out that the future defenders of the realm are just as bad as my old classmates, which is honestly a little infuriating. Do they not understand that our lives—and the lives of others—will depend on what we learn here?

Instead of trying to learn vital information, these… children are playing game, pulling pranks, and bullying each other. Some prick named Sky Lark (what a stupid name) literally threw a paper airplane at me when the teacher wasn't looking like some kind of stereotypical movie bully.

When combat class finally rolled around, thrashing him before he could even get a hit on me was incredibly satisfying.

Well, whatever. I'm not going to put up with them if I don't have to. I don't mind having no friends. Aspen and Amandine were nice, but we were never that close. Solitude suits me just fine.

Age 13; End of Month 2 of Combat School

It's pretty clear that I'm the strongest fighter in my year. I'm not a combat prodigy or anything; I've just put in more work than my classmates. I have a bad habit of overanalyzing my opponents and I rely on my Semblance a lot in combat.

My biggest advantages are my physical conditioning and my Aura. My strength, speed, and endurance are great for my age even before I enhance them with Aura. My fine control of my Aura, honed by countless hours of playing around with it and experimenting, lets me enhance myself to a ridiculous degree. I can even boost my reflexes enough to see bullets, but I'm not fast enough to parry them… yet.

Age 13; 2nd Semester of Combat School

It was finally time to start building our own weapons. I had been brainstorming for years now, and I had a design I was really proud of.

My primary weapon would be a sword (they're what I was used to, after all) with a Dust compartment in the core of the blade. I was primarily planning on putting Gravity Dust in it; my Aura control was fine enough that I could activate a portion of the Dust right before I landed an attack to drastically increase the weight of the blade for an instant and strike with massive force.

The sword itself would be longer than Crocea Mors but shorter than Joyeuse, Dad's greatsword. I made the mistake of mentioning that it was technically a bastard sword within earshot of Tawny and Mocha, and they naturally started teasing me for it.

My sword can also mechashift into a shotgun. It'll obviously have less range than a rifle, but Blinking easily rectifies that issue. I can adjust both the length of the barrel and the width of the choke to deal with a wide variety of situations. A long barrel, narrow choke, and slug shells let me shoot accurately at medium ranges with more power than a rifle; a short barrel and wide choke lets me blast buckshot across a close target to knock them back and off balance.

The sheath, which I need to wear on my back to account for the length of the blade, has a gap on the side so I can draw my sword horizontally rather than vertically. The sheath itself can also mechashift into a shield; I doubt I'll use it much in combat, as I'm fast enough to dodge or parry most attacks, but it can't hurt to have another defensive option.

I named the sword Alba Mors. "Mors" is obviously derived from the family weapon, but "Alba," a Latin word for "white," is an homage to the pure white soul that I saw when my Aura was first unlocked.

My Aura isn't white anymore. It's gray.

Age 13; First Week of Summer Break after Year 1 of Combat School

Part of our year-end exams involved a tournament between the students. I took it seriously, of course, but I wasn't exactly worried. I could beat everyone in my year with little difficulty, and I could even hold my own against my upperclassmen. I even managed to beat most of the 2nd years that our combat instructor pitted me against.

Anyway, our report cards with our final grades had been sent out today, and I aced every class. Mocha called me a nerd, but I Blinked behind her and grabbed her report card to read out her perfect Chemistry grade.

Who's the nerd now?

I knew Marine would get a kick out of our sibling's hypocrisy, so I ran to her room even as Mocha (and Tawny, who I know managed to somehow get the same grade as her twin) chased after me.

With the twins hot on my heels, I burst in to Marine's room without knocking. I instantly regretted it when I saw what she was looking at on her computer.

Mocha caught up to me and snatched her report card out of my hands before she saw the look on my face and then noticed what I had seen. She immediately started snickering.

Marine had apparently fallen asleep at her computer, because she had neglected to close the yaoi hentai she had been looking at.

She hadn't woken up from the commotion, so I slowly backed out of her room and closed the door.

Well, I guess that explains why she was so gung-ho about making me wear dresses all the time.

Age 14; 2nd Year of Combat School

Saphron is getting married. She's been dating a girl she met at college in Atlas named Terra for a few years now, and they decided to take the next step. Terra apparently has a job at the CCT station in Argus lined up, so they'll be moving there after the wedding, which is taking place here in Domremy.

I must have read poetry back on Earth because I can somehow recite a bunch of poems from memory. I decided to put this useless skill to use by writing them all down in an old-looking journal and giving them to Saph as a wedding present. If she asks, one of our ancestors wrote them and I just found the journal in our attic.

The story is a least somewhat believable because I literally did find an old book in our attic. I was poking around up there when I found an old, leather-bound journal in a small, wooden chest.

Writing on the first page told me that it was Julius Arc's personal journal during the Great War. I had heard stories from Dad about how much of a hero our ancestor was, but the man's journal really drove it home.

It detailed the entire course of the war from Julius's perspective including several years before and after the conflict. The journal also described several conversations he had with Osborne, the last king of Vale.

Osborne was legendary for his participation in the last battle of the war, in which he took the field and single-handedly annihilated the combined armies of Mistral and Mantle. After the battle, the leaders of all four kingdoms offered to swear fealty to him as the ruler of all Remnant. Osborne declined and instead abolished the monarchy after enacting several reforms (including creating the Huntsman Academies).

I learned all of that from my history textbook. From this journal, I learned that Osborne loved fairy tales, drank hot cocoa instead of coffee or alcohol, and was incredibly humble.

I wish I could've met Julius or Osborne, but they're both long-dead. I suppose I'll have to settle for reading about them.

Age 16; Summer before 4th Year of Combat School

Interdimensional plagiarism is quite difficult, as it turns out. I had been planning on recreating a few things from Earth, but making things purely from memory is very hard, especially if your memories are spotty at the best of times and you've been in another dimension for twelve years.

I thought about replicating Earth technology, but I don't actually know how to make any of it. Most of my Earth knowledge consists of history, literature, and a bit of pop culture.

I tried ripping off a few Earth books, but rewriting an entire book from memory is nearly impossible, and I'm not great at creative writing. I know a decent number of poems, but I already wrote down all the ones I remembered for Saph.

I don't have any way to make movies either, but there would be no point. It's downright creepy how many things in Remnant seem like references to Earth. There's a famous movie star who's seriously named Spruce Willis. I laughed so hard when I saw his name come up on screen that I got thrown out of the movie theater.

Fortunately, I found something I was capable of replicating that didn't already exist on Remnant.

Tetris.

The game itself was relatively simple to replicate, all things considered. It took me a while to learn how to code using Remnant's technology, but I already had a bit of programming knowledge from Earth (apparently).

It still took me a whole year to make, though. I have a lot of newfound respect for Alexey Pajitnov (who I listed in the game's credits as my inspiration for the game). Once I finished the game, I published it on several app stores for Scrolls for the low, low price of 0.99 Lien.

Hey, Dust is expensive, okay? I need to make money somehow.

The game sold fairly well, all things considered. I made a decent amount of Lien off of the sales, most of which I'm saving up for when I need supplies or equipment. I tried making a few other simple games like Pong, but none of them sold as well as Tetris did, and I didn't have the skills to make anything complex.

In the unlikely event that anyone else from Earth is on Remnant now or in the future, hopefully they'll get in touch with me. Maybe I'll even set up a support group for interdimensional travelers.

Age 16; Last Day of Combat School

I was now officially a graduate of Polaris Combat School, which means I'll be going to Beacon this Fall. I'm not conceited enough to think I'm guaranteed entry, but I graduated top of my class with stellar transcripts.

Speaking of graduating, Jade finished her fourth year at Beacon and is now a licensed Huntress. Much to my chagrin, I still can't beat her in a fight. I'm bigger, stronger, and faster than her now, but she has four years of combat experience on me.

She might be annoyingly overprotective, but she also does her best to make sure I don't get arrogant about my skills by trouncing me whenever she has the chance.

Jade and Dad are taking me on a hunting trip next week to give me more experience fighting Grimm. I've been on trips like these before, but they agreed to sit back and let me do all the fighting this time.

After the trip, Jade's Beacon team will be staying over for a few weeks. I've met them before, and they're pretty nice. Through some twist of fate, they're all women with green-themed names. Whoever decides team placements must have a weird sense of humor.

Age 17; Jaune's 17th Birthday

My whole family is here to celebrate my last birthday at home. I've come a long way from thinking of them as "Jaune's family". I think I genuinely love them at this point, and I'm not afraid to admit it no matter how much my sisters tease me.

Speaking of love, Saph and Terra had a kid. Adrian Cotta-Arc is admittedly a pretty cute baby. He's only a few months old, but I asked him a few pointed questions to see if he was actually a baby. My circumstances have admittedly made me a little paranoid about body-snatching. Terra is the one who gave birth to him, but Saph's the one who's taking care of him and writing her poetry on the side while Terra works at the CCT in Argus.

Jade has been going on missions with her Beacon team, but she visits home a lot. She told me that she's been thinking about building a homestead with her team near our house. The Arc family apparently owns a lot of the surrounding area, but there's only one house in the whole area. I think Domremy would appreciate having four more Huntsmen living nearby, and I know Mom would appreciate having more company.

Mocha, Tawny, and Marine are all going to college in Vale. Mocha and Tawny are both majoring in Dust Chemistry, and Marine is majoring in History. She apparently wants to earn her doctorate and become a university professor. I made a copy of Julius's journal for her going-away present; I had a feeling she would appreciate it.

Lavender is still going to civilian school, but Amber starts at Polaris this Fall. I've been coaching her when I have time, and she's clearly very skilled. She has a lot of natural talent, and the Aura coaching I gave her helped her discover her Semblance early.

Amber's Semblance is Triumph, and it lets her inspire people around her to improve their morale and temporarily increase the strength of their Aura. She can only boost one person at the moment, but with enough training she'll be a natural leader.

Lavender even set up a video call with Aspen and Amandine during my birthday party. They're both doing well in Menagerie; Aspen joined the Menagerie Guards, and Amandine is apprenticing under a baker.

All in all, my 17th birthday was pretty great. And in a little over a month, I'll be a student at Beacon Academy.

Author's Note: Finally unveiled Jaune's weapons and Semblance in this chapter. Hopefully the Semblance won't seem too overpowered, but teleportation fits a dimensional traveler pretty well, and it has some pretty obvious weaknesses. I also spent a ton of time trying to design his weapon; I was happy with the Grav-Dust sword, but I was less confident about how to implement guns and shields into the design.

(First published on June 26, 2021)